More bus route changes coming in October

Honolulu’s bus riders will likely need to change their routines as the city contemplates changes to its bus routes.

Representatives of the City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services are making the rounds at neighborhood board meetings this month to present proposed changes to the department’s bus routes as the Skyline rapid transit project develops.

In a presentation made to the May 1 McCully/Mō‘ili‘ili Neighborhood Board Meeting, Dave Simpson, a planner with consulting firm PBR Hawai‘i, said Skyline’s second phase of development — which will connect beyond the current terminus at Aloha Stadium to Pearl Harbor and the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, up to Middle Street in Kahauiki — is scheduled to open in October.

In order to better integrate DTS’ bus routes with rapid transit services, Simpson said, the department will also modify, remove or add routes on Oct. 1.

DTS already made route changes in March, including creating the new Route 47 connecting Skyline’s University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu station to ‘Ewa Beach. But the proposed changes coming in October could be more expansive.

For example, the A Line bus route, which runs from ‘Aiea to UH Mānoa, could be truncated, chopping off the route west of Kahauiki Village, with the expectation that users in ‘Aiea could instead take Skyline the rest of the way.

Similarly, Route 20, which runs from Aloha Stadium to Waikīkī, would be eliminated entirely, to be replaced by a new W Line. Simpson said the existing Route 20 is “redundant” to the Skyline extension, given that it follows more or less the same route as Skyline between the stadium and Kahuiki.

The W Line would begin at the Skyline airport station, and follow largely the same eastward route as Route 20. Simpson said this will double the bus’ peak frequency, with new buses arriving at stops every 10 minutes on weekdays.

DTS is also proposing a new Route 331 to replace Route 303, which would be discontinued.While current Route 303 extends west from Kahauiki to Pearl Harbor, Route 331 would only stretch between Pearl Harbor and the Kamehameha Highway/Interstate H-1 interchange. Simpson said again that Route 303 will be redundant to the Skyline expansion, and that travelers will be able to quickly transfer from the rail to the bus at the interchange and vice-versa.

Other changes include minor rerouting of routes 40, 42 and 51 to hit Skyline stations, a reduction in frequency for Route 46 — Simpson said this is an adjustment “to meet the existing level of demand” and a new weekday-only U Line, connecting from UH Mānoa to Māpunapuna.

DTS Planner Eric Grover said at Thursday’s meeting that the route changes will not come with any fare increases.

Simpson said residents with questions or concerns about the proposed new routes should email them to thebusstop@honolulu.gov by July 15. The presentation will also come before other neighborhood boards, including — but not limited to — the Wai‘anae Coast board meeting on May 6, the Mānoa board meeting on May 7 and the Āliamanu/Salt Lake board meeting on May 8.

Aloha State Daily reached out to DTS for further information.